Godrej enters women's hygiene market

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Godrej Consumer Products (GPCL) has forayed into women's hygiene market through a joint venture with Sweden-based SCA Hygiene Products AB with plans to set up a Rs 40-crore manufacturing unit.

Godrej SCA Hygiene, an 50:50 joint venture between the two companies, has introduced sanitary napkin brand 'Libresse', from SCA's global portfolio. It is aiming to capture 15-20 per cent share of the women's hygiene market in next 3 years, currently pegged at Rs 700 crore growing at 9 per cent per annum.

"With the new brand we intend to tap the potential of the market, which currently has very low penetration level," Godrej SCA Hygiene India Vice-President and Business Head Samir Prasad said.

He said the company, which plans to manufacture a range of products in India, has already acquired a site near Nasik to set up a manufacturing unit. It would invest Rs 40 crore in the new unit which is expected to be operational by the end of this year.

The JV, formed in March last year with a capital of Rs 20 crore, has already introduced two new brands of diapers for babies and adults.

Manufacturing and marketing of the new product range will be handled by the JV company, while the sales and distribution will be taken care of by GPCL, which has a strong distribution network across India with 6.5 lakh outlets.

Commenting on the Indian market SCA Personal Care Category Marketing Director Latin America and AMESA Rolf Lipschutz said, "We have a lot of expectations from the Indian market. However, the penetration level here is very low with only 2 pieces annually as against 40 billion pieces in China."